Jun 13, 2016 03:07 PM
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So I finally completed 1 more century, this is my 400th review, and what best than to review a novel, a book, being an enormous book lover, and what best than to review an epic. HAWAII by JAMES A.MICHENER is an epic novel, and this is my 2nd read of him after ALASKA. I received this book on 11th dec 2014, started this book on 11th apr 2015, and finished it on 11th jun 2016, thats 428 days for 1036 pages.
This book is a kind of chronology of the islands of Hawaii, right from when it emerges from lavas of erupted volcanoes till the recent times of 1950s. The book is divided into 6 chapters, each of them could be considered as a separate novel-:
Chapter 1: From the boundless deep: It is a 16 pages chapter which tells hiw did Hawaii islands came into existence. No characters are there in this chapter.
Chapter 2: From the sun-swept lagoon: This chapter goes for 114 pages and it tells the story of original natives of islands and about their gods and beliefs.
Chapter 3: From the farm of bitterness: This chapter goes for around 280 pages and it tells the story of missionaries who came from mainland America and established their rules and teachings on these islands.
Chapter 4: From the starving village: This chapter of 255 pages tells the story of migrants from China who were imported as slaves into the islands to work on sugar fields.
Chapter 5: From the inland sea: This chapter of 225 pages tells the story of imported Japanese into the islands and the intermingling societies of chinese, japanese, filipinos, natives, and americans and the fate of islands during the world war.
Chapter 6: The Golden Men: This last chapter of 145 pages detailed the 4 golden men of hawaiian history and their contributions, and further developments of the islands, and how and why the islands never got the state status for America.
Well, so this is really an epic, the writer covered so many centuries in just 1 book, and yes, he was capable of this feat, since this is not the only book written by him, I have read his other epic ALASKA, that was a marvellous book, this one certainly not better than that one but nonetheless it required so much efforts to write such a story. He mixes the reality with fiction, telling the history of lands and using tye fictional characters for his story, a wonderful feat in itself. Michener is a master storyteller, he has written more than 40 books of same pattern. I am sure buying these books soo like POLAND, MEXICO, TEXAS, CARIBBEAN etc.
This book was first published in 1959, i.e. before ALASKA(1988) by Random House and is also adapted into a 1966 and a 1970 movies. The language is simple and the serious readers like me will love it. I loved this book, since I always like reading adventure books. I will give this book a rating of 5/5.
GRuchirG.
Jai Raam ji ki:)
